The Banbury Bulls produced a solid performance at Bodicote Park in their latest Midlands Three East (South) league fixture on Saturday to overcome the challenge of Towcester by 29 points to 11.

Playing with the elements in their favour in the first half the Bulls began the game slowly, taking ten minutes before they started to assert any dominance over their closest rivals (geographically).

It wasn’t long after the ten minute mark that the first points of the game were scored. Having moved into the visitors twenty-two thanks to two penalties the forwards at first tried to drive their way toward the try line but with the defence holding firm the ball was passed out to fly half Grant Holmes whose delayed pass back on the inside found Sean Bannister who waltzed through a hole in the defence and then powered through the cover defence to score under the posts. The successful conversion from fullback Andrew Lace gave the Bulls an early 7 point advantage.

Using the wind advantage to push the visitors back inside their own half the Bulls enjoyed a territorial advantage and after a loose ball was snapped up by the home side and passed out wide Bannister found wing Jed Boyle who beat one or two defenders before passing back to Bannister who looked like scoring only to be halted by the last line of defence but he managed to get his pass away to the supporting Dave Taylor who ran in to score under the posts. Again the kick was successful and the Bulls lead was now 14-0. Two missed penalty opportunities from Lace kept Towcester in the game and when they finally had time in possession in the Bulls half were able to kick two penalties to reduce the deficit to 8 points.

The last scoring action of the half went to the home side who again thanks to offences committed by the opposition were able to put the ball deep into their territory and after numerous drives towards the line the ball was shipped to Holmes on the blind side who popped the ball up to Simon Brand who crashed his way over the line despite the attentions of three would be defenders. The conversion missed but the Bulls had now established a 13 point lead at the break.

The second half started well for the Bulls, playing into a stiff breeze they kept the ball in hand and spent long periods of time in the visitors half. The kicking game from Towcester was not great to begin with as they kept finding one of the Banbury back three who invariably ran the ball back into their half.

It was from one of these instances that the next points came. Wing Jed Boyle retrieved a long kick down field and ran the ball back beating the first defender and racing up the touch line. With the cover defence approaching he passed back to Taylor who scampered away to score his second try of the match. The missed conversion meant the score now stood at 24-6.

Within five minutes and before the second half had reached its halfway point the Bulls were on the scoreboard again. This time from a scrum number 8 Brand picked the ball up turned and fed the supporting Bannister who drew the defence before passing to fellow back row Ryan London who drove over the line in the tackle of two defenders. This completed a hatrick of tries for the back row. The conversion again was amiss but the Bulls now held a healthy 29-6 lead.

Towcester finally got some reward for a fairly solid forward display when a standard catch and drive from a line out saw them drive the Bulls back over their try line to score. With the conversion missing the Bulls lead of 29-11 meant the game was safe with only 10 minutes remaining but they were eager not to let the visitors put too much respectability into the score line and they did this with some comfort to run out winners outscoring their opposition by five tries to one.